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Hoch shoots from the hip Ryder Cup hopeful opens with a 2-under at PGA
Updated: Friday August 17, 2001 12:11 AM
By Yi-Wyn Yen, Sports Illustrated DULUTH, Ga. -- Scott Hoch can't help himself. Even when he knows his big mouth will get him in trouble with the U.S. Ryder Cup captain or his wife, Hoch can't keep his trap shut. "I just tell the truth," he says with a sigh. "I just tell it like it is." Hoch has never been shy about spewing his contrarian opinions, whether it's his dislike of playing in the British Open or calling St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf, a cow pasture. Now it's his well-documented indifference to playing in the Ryder Cup next month. "I've known Scott Hoch for a long, long time. I can handle Scott," said U.S. captain Curtis Strange. "Scott Hoch is the kind of guy that you want on your team ... with a muzzle." Following his first-round 68 on Thursday at the PGA Championship, Hoch wasn't afraid to take a shot back at Strange. "Curtis has been around me for awhile. I know that he knows he can handle anybody on the team," Hoch said. Raising his left brow, he added, "Anybody but [his Wife] Sarah, that is." Hoch has no animosity toward Strange, his Wake Forest teammate from 1975-77, but he can't stop deadpanning. "It would be an honor to play for Curtis. We used to play together, a long, long time ago when he could play." What does bother Hoch, seventh in the Ryder Cup points standings, are the times when he was passed over as a captain's pick. At the '89 Ryder Cup at the Belfry, Raymond Floyd favored cup veterans like Lanny Wadkins and Tom Watson instead of Hoch, who had finished runner-up at the Masters, 13th at the U.S. Open and seventh at the PGA. That year, the biennial matchers were halved only for the second time in Cup history, but the Europeans kept the Cup. "The times I thought I should have been on the team but wasn't was hurtful, especially when we lost and I thought if I was on the team, we might have had a better chance," he said. Hoch was passed over again for the next three Cups, but made the team by his own merits in '97. Though the U.S. lost 14 1/2 - 13 1/2 at Valderrama, Hoch (2-0-1) was the only player on the team to not lose a match. However, players weren't turning to him for rally support. After all the complaints about not being picked, Hoch had concluded the Ryder Cup wasn't all that it was cracked up to be anyway. "I was playing in my first foursomes match with Lee Janzen. I was walking down the 8th fairway and I turned to him and said, 'Lee, is this all there is? Is this really it?'" Hoch said. "Now, I don't have any sour milk spilled, but I'm disappointed by all the hype surrounding the event. It was intended to be a friendly competition between players, and it's just out of control. You shouldn't have to feel that if you hit a terrible shot, everyone will point fingers at you and think, 'You cost us the Ryder Cup.' I've seen that happen to players when the matches got close and they get distraught and it affects their game for awhile." The event has only become more frenzied with the aftermath of Brookline, which is why Hoch is convinced he won't get swept away by the matches. "I like the atmosphere of the Presidents Cup much better. It's about a friendly competition, and we're still there trying to win. It's not a do or die thing," he said. Hoch has no shortage of opinions, but possibly sensing that he has said too much, he said, "Maybe I should stop now. My wife keeps telling me to shut up about the Ryder Cup because she wants to go. She doesn't care what I think. She just doesn't want me to get banned from the thing."
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